A long time ago, I asked my brother Mike, who was the GM of the Minnesota Vikings at the time, if soccer would ever replace football in this country. He didn’t hesitate to say, “No!” But I’m not so sure. I mean, think about Ted Lasso.
Since the early 2000s physicians and the NFL have known just what repeated concussions can do to the brain. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, aka CTE, has been diagnosed in more than 345 post-mortem exams of 376 former football players. It’s estimated that 1 in 3 current players think they have the disease. Getting knocked out isn’t necessary, smaller impacts over time can be just as debilitating. And it’s nothing new in contact sports, boxers in the 1920s developed cauliflower ears and neurological symptoms – back then it was called “dementia pugilistica.”
Being a good Jewish mother, I signed my son up for soccer when he was in pre-school. The town league of Mini-Mights needed coaches, so I signed myself up for the course as well. I spent a day in a room with neighbors learning all the rules of soccer and taking a test, only to find myself assigning parents their weekend to bring orange wedges. Oh and following minor herds of wildebeests across a field in pursuit of a ball. I did get to wear a whistle.
We never got to the point of worrying about headers in soccer since ice hockey soon enough took precedence. What mother didn’t love the idea of ramming another hockey player against the boards? After all, ‘checking’ was allowed after a certain age whether we liked it or not. But I found myself wondering about the impact of headers while watching snippets of FIFA games these past weeks. Does hitting a soccer ball with your head cause the same kind of damage tackling can cause in American football? The answer is, maybe?
“Biomechanical modeling studies suggest that minor, repetitive head impacts could change the microstructure of the brain’s white matter, which plays a critical role in learning and memory. Diffusion MRI brain imaging can assess white matter microstructure, but due to technical hurdles, only in areas deep within the brain.” https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/soccer-heading-does-most-damage-brain-area-critical-cognition
In other words, since evaluating the outer layers of white matter is difficult if not impossible now, we don’t know how impactful headers might be for young growing brains. But researchers have found repeated injuries to the skull do impair cognitive function. “Even with today’s lighter (soccer) balls, heading still jars the brain and is associated with learning and memory deficits, though the impacts do not cause concussions.”
I found myself rooting for Belgium during last night’s game in Seattle. After a perfectly patriotic Fourth of July, I was dismayed by Mr T’s interference in the FIFA World Cup playbook, giving Balogun a pass after a red card. Bob insisted the card was unfair, but we both agreed you don’t go behind the scenes and call President Infantino for a favor. Does he think he’s the Godfather? A red card is a red card. FIFA fever had reigned supreme for 24 days without one mention of the Toddler in Chief, so I guess he had to seek some publicity.
Still, I felt sorry for our guys. I cringed when the captain of the U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT), Christian Pulisic, kicked another man’s heel instead of the ball. Born in PA but playing in the UK for a reported $73 million dollars, I felt slightly better this morning for Pulisic. Here I am with the Rocker in our 80s hair days.
ps: UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, said in a statement that the suspension of Balogun’s ban threatened the reputation of the tournament. “When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined,” UEFA said.
MountainMornings 